When building systems for commercial or industrial clients, it was best to sell output via the Standard Offer Program prior to the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff. The Standard Offer Program provided a rate of 42 cents per kilowatt hour for 20 years.
However, operating as a Business, if you were looking to own your PV system and consume as much electrical power as you wanted to generate, you had a couple of options. You could purchase, install and operate your system PV system and once you were producing power, you could sell it to OPA via the standard offer program. Payback is based on the total cost of the system and your average income based on electrical production per year.
A second option for a commercial setup that would use as much or more power as they wanted to generate, was called Net Metering. Under that system, your production offsets your usage, but you did not receive credit for any yearly surplus.
Residential customers also had the option to choose the Standard Offer Program or Net Metering. Under the SOP, the rate was the same, 42 cents per kwh. However, for net metering operations, a residential customer had different provincial and federal incentive programs.
Regardless of your situation, today's Feed-in Tariffs is the best choice.
